


i'll go the distance for you

by orphan_account



Series: AUgust 2020 - AU Writing Challenge [3]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe-soulmates, Conversations, Implied Suicide Attempt, Jack Zimmermann's Overdose, M/M, Sacrifices, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25698013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "Well...he got drafted. I didn't. And it...stopped."
Relationships: Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmermann, Kent "Parse" Parson/Jack Zimmermann
Series: AUgust 2020 - AU Writing Challenge [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860460
Comments: 12
Kudos: 41





	i'll go the distance for you

_Most people were born with their soulmate’s name on their wrist, or it bloomed there within a few years, when their own soulmate was born. Eric Bittle’s soulname didn’t appear until he was fourteen years old. It wasn’t unheard of, though it certainly wasn’t_ usual _, for someone to be that much older than their soulmate, but Bitty was mostly just glad that he had a soulmate at all. Some people had the incredible misfortune to never have a name appear, to never find their other half._

Jack Laurent Zimmermann _, his wrist said in stark black script. It had appeared practically within the blink of an eye, and Bitty had yelped when he first saw it there, so used to the blank stretch of skin never saying anything no matter how much he wished for it. He rubbed over it several times, convinced it was a prank from those stupid jerks on the football team, but it felt like a soulname should feel (or so his mama had told him): a little warm, raised slightly like a tattoo, and it brought an involuntary smile to his lips when he traced along the letters. So he was out there, Bitty’s soulmate, and though he’d have to wait quite a long time before they could meet and be together, Bitty was happier than he’d ever been just knowing that someday, he wouldn’t be alone anymore._

x.x.x.x

“We only hooked up a few times back in juniors…and with the draft changing everything…I don’t think he got over it.”

Somehow it was both exactly what Bitty thought he would hear and not at all what he thought was true, when he’d asked Jack about his past romantic history. Not, of course, that he didn’t _trust_ Jack, but the fact remained that Jack was nearly five years older than him and Bitty’s wrist had only had Jack’s name on it for nearly that long. According to Jack, Bitty’s name had been there on his for as long as he could remember. It was all so odd, but he didn’t know how or where to get any answers that might explain it.

“Wow, Kent Parson,” Bitty then said, after Jack mentioned the few girls he’d dated during his freshman and sophomore years. _The major ones_ , Jack had said, which of course implied that there were some minor ones he didn’t feel counted for much.

He wasn’t jealous, or at least, Bitty didn’t think he was jealous. What really was there to be jealous about? That was sort of the beauty of having your soulmate’s name written on your body for the whole world to see. Everyone knew that while relationships outside your soulmate happened, they were never going to be as strong or all-encompassing as the ones with the person the gods had picked out for you long before you were even born.

Still, he couldn’t help but feel a little, well, inexperienced compared to Jack. Heck, he’d never even kissed anyone before Jack! There’d been that guy from the rugby team he’d gone on a date or two with and the guy who’d thrown up on his dang shoes at Winter Screw freshman year, but neither of them had seemed worth it even to bother, not when his _actual_ soulmate played on the very same team as him and was probably falling in love with him day by day.

No, he wasn’t jealous—there was no reason to be. “Haha,” he joked, “sorry if you wanted me to be.”

“No never,” Jack said offhandedly, patting a hand on Bitty’s shoulder, as Bitty took the cassoulet over to the oven.

“But, um…you told me what happened with Camilla and those other girls…how did it end with Kent Parson?”

The question was out of Bitty’s mouth before he could stop himself, though. It was just curiosity. Not jealousy. Just curiosity.

Jack paused for a long time—long enough that Bitty was able to slide the cassoulet dish into the oven, set the timer for an hour, and go over to the sink to start washing the dishes they’d used in preparation. Bitty didn’t think it was that difficult a question. He knew what his own answer would be if he’d had the experience: we weren’t soulmates, so it ended amicably enough. But then, Kent had said all those horrible things to Jack back during the Epikegster, so clearly it hadn’t ended all that amicably between them.

“It really wasn’t anything more than physical. Hockey,” Jack finally said. “…and it kind of had an expiration date from the get go, you know?”

 _Because he wasn’t your soulmate_ , Bitty thought firmly.

“Push comes to shove…hockey came first. Something like that could have really messed with our careers.”

“Right,” Bitty said, turning the explanation over in his mind a little. So it wasn’t that Kent Parson hadn’t been Jack’s soulmate, it was that dating a boy and trying to play professional hockey didn’t exactly go hand-in-hand. With a sigh, he gripped the edge of the sink tightly and added, “You have to think about your career.”

He turned to look over his shoulder to see Jack essentially mirroring his position at the kitchen island, staring down at the space between his hands. His back looked taut and tense, and Bitty immediately felt sorry for bringing it all up, no matter that they probably needed to have the conversation. It wasn’t like Jack needed all that extra stress on him. The pre-season was only a couple weeks away, and he needed to focus on practices and all his team obligations.

“Oh! I just remembered!” Bitty then said, hoping to change the subject to something much lighter, “You said you had something else to tell me?”

“Oh yeah,” Jack said, turning over his shoulder with an unreadable expression, before he nodded to himself and left the kitchen.

Bitty watched the doorway, waiting for Jack to return. _He never really got over it_ , Jack had said earlier of their handful of Juniors hookups—years later and Kent Parson never really got over it. _Lord_ , he thought, _that poor boy._

_June 2009_

“Please…please you can’t take him. You can’t _take_ him!”

The booming voice nearly bowled Kent Parson over when it responded, “We do as we wish.”

“Who is it that dares,” came a second voice, no less thunderous than the first, “make demands of the gods?”

“His soulmate! I’m his soulmate, please, please you have to listen—”

“—SILENCE, CHILD!”

Kent breathed raggedly, hands digging into the strange dark earth beneath him, scrabbling for purchase. He managed to lift his head and shoved his right hand into the air, exposing the fading name on his wrist. “He’s dying.”

“He’s already dead,” said the first voice. “He made his choice, and so we will take him.”

“No, god, _god_ , please! It was a mistake! It was an accident!” Kent begged. He pushed himself back to his feet and stood against the howling wind, bracing himself as best he could. Back straight and hands out in supplication, he prayed as best he remembered from his childhood. “I’ll do anything. Anything, please, you have to understand. He cannot go. It’s not his time, he’s too young, he has so much—please, he has so much left to do!”

“He cannot do more. He’s gon—”

“—wait,” interrupted the second voice, a note of something curious in it.

Kent barely dared to hope in the long moment of silence.

“There will be a price,” said the second voice. “Would you pay it?”

“Anything,” Kent answered hurriedly. “I’ll pay anything, anything you want, please, just let him live. Bring him back.”

There was a loaded silence again, but then suddenly, just as quickly as he’d arrived at the gods’ feet, Kent found himself back in the hospital at Jack’s bedside. Tears streamed down Alicia’s cheeks, but she was smiling, and Bob had fallen to his knees, with his forehead pressed to Jack’s hand at his side. “Oh god, he’s—he’s okay?"

“Yes, oh sweetheart,” Alicia said, laughing a bit hysterically through it. “They thought—oh god, they thought that he—but, but he’s all right, he’s going to be all right now.”

Kent sighed shakily, though his cheeks hurt from smiling so hard, and he raked his hands through his hair. But when he brought them down again and went to reach for Jack’s hand, he saw it—or rather, he _missed_ it.

Because there on his wrist where Jack’s name had once been, bright and clear and solid, was a blank stretch of skin.

**Author's Note:**

> Check Please belongs to Ngozi Ukazu. Title comes from "The Distance" by Gavin Turek. No infringement intended. Some dialogue lifted directly from comic episode "LVA @ PVD - Part 1".


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